A module is a microprocessor and its associated memory chip(s) and passive components, the substrate to which these components are mechanically and electrically affixed, and the lid which is mechanically and thermally coupled to the opposing sides of the components and onto the upper side of the substrate. On a server's main electronics board, there may be one or several locations where modules are to be placed, each location is then referred to as a module site.
Modules generate a significant amount of heat during testing. The heat must be removed in order to avoid thermal damage of the module. Conventionally, a cold plate manifold is provided to aid in the removal of heat. A conventional production level liquid cooled cold plate manifold has rigid copper tubes in four parallel cooling loops. These four loops each service four module sites. The coolant is supplied via a single supply and exhausted via a single return. Since there are multiple electronics modules to be cooled, the coolant is routed via tubing to multiple locations- the multiple tubes meet the supply and return at their respective manifolds. The liquid flows through a quadrant rather than an individual site. Each loop is rigidly attached to the four cold plates and the supply header by a brazing process. The module fixture is attached to the cold plate manifold. To gain access to one site the entire copper pipe manifold and sixteen cold plates need to be removed as one entity. Each node will require several iterative cold plate removals which are costly and time consuming.
Furthermore, the manifold interfaces with the module with a grease to improve thermal conductivity between the module and cold plate. This grease secures the module physically to the cold plates. The grease interface disrupts all module to planar board connections.